g or communication disability (Pullen & Justice, 2003).
Target Population
The target population for the proposed intervention consists of three-year and four-year old male and female preschoolers served in a public elementary school Head Start or Early Childhood Development Program. As Miller and Church (2003) have noted, children as young as three or four years old are ready for involvement in literacy skill development activities and are ready to advance their own language skills through targeted activities. Additionally, preschool children are generally engaged in acquiring the social communication skills that they will need throughout life. The ability to communicate effectively during peer interactions and interactions with teachers has the potential to enhance social outcomes and facilitate the development of necessary social skills (Craig-Unkefer & Kaiser, 2002). It is anticipated that no more than 12 preschoolers ages 3 to 4 will be included in this intervention.
Goals for the Program
There are three specific goals for the six-week intervention presented below. Each goal focuses on one of the three emergent literacy factors associated with later reading achievement: phonological awareness improvement, print awareness improvement, and oral language skill enhancement. It is anticipated that at the end of the program, each of the participants will exhibit enhanced competencies and skills in each of these three areas. It is further anticipated that the nature of the interventions will facilitate greater peer interaction among participants, assessed in terms of the observations of the classroom teacher.
Outline of the Sessions
The six weekly sessions targeting emergent literacy skills
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